HONDA LAUNCHES CITY HATCHBACK

Carmaker hopeful sales tax exemption will boost sales performance next year

HONDA Malaysia said sales may be 40 per cent lower than its initial target of 80,000 units for this year due to a combination of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown and global chip shortages.

Company officials, speaking at the launch of the City Hatchback yesterday, said while they did not have official figures to share, they were hopeful the coming year would be more stable, buoyed by the government’s extension of the sales tax exemption until June.

The five-door City Hatchback, which replaces the Jazz model in Southeast Asia, will be available in four variants with two engine options of e:HEV and petrol.

They are the S, E and V with a 1.5L DOHC i-VTEC petrol engine and the RS e:HEV that is powered by a 1.5L Sports intelligent MultiMode Drive powertrain.

The petrol variants are priced at RM75,670, RM83,080 and RM87,860 respectively.

The price for the RS e:HEV will only be announced next year.

Honda Malaysia aims to sell 1,000 units of the new City Hatchback monthly.

Honda Malaysia said it had received more than 2,000 bookings to date.

Deliveries of the petrol variants will begin next month.

PIC BY HAZREEN MOHAMAD Honda Malaysia managing director and chief executive officer Madoka Chujo and chief operations officer Sarly Adli Sarkum (left) with the newly-launched Honda City Hatchback at the Malaysian International Trade and Exhibition Centre in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.